1. Field of the Invention
The Invention relates to an automobile door lock having a lock mechanism, with a variety of levers, and lock elements, like a ratchet and a pawl, whereby the lock mechanism has an outer actuating lever operatively cooperating at one end with an outer door handle, and with a clutch lever cooperating with an outer actuating lever and with the pawl.
2. Description of Related Art
A locking device for an automobile door, which, in a simple manner can be installed free of play is known from published German Patent Application No. 40 05 369. In the automobile door lock disclosed there, the retaining bolt of the lock mechanism is loosened during the delivery state of the automobile door lock. The outer actuating lever and the clutch lever are spread apart, as far as possible by the bias spring until the farthermost possible end position of the outer actuating lever is reached. Subsequent to the installation of the automobile door lock, the outer door handle is inserted by initially placing a hock, which is in front in the drive direction, into the door panel through an opening, and the door handle is then moved forward until a stop is reached. Thereafter, the rear handle section is twisted into the opening, whereby the outer door handle is guided along the edge of the opening. This guidance is necessary so that a hook-like section passes the outer actuating lever until the outer actuating lever rests at an abutment surface of the outer door handle. A further pressing of the outer door handle into the opening, until it makes contact with the door panel of the automobile door, causes the abutment surface to move the outer actuating lever, opposing the bias force of the bias spring, whereby the relative position of the outer actuating lever is changed, relative to the clutch lever, which remains in a stationary position. An influencing of the pawl does not occur. Subsequently, after the outer door handle is slid rearwardly, and this operational position has thus been fixed, the retaining bolt is tightened, so that now the new position of the outer actuation lever, relative to the clutch lever, is fixed. Accordingly, the lock connection assembly has been fixed, practically free of play. An operating surface of the outer door handle positioned opposite to the abutment surface now is positioned to transmit the opening force to the outer actuating lever when the door is opened.
It is further known (German Patent 39 11 327) to tighten the retaining bolt of the lock connection assembly in the delivery position, and to fix the two levers mentioned above towards each other; to loosen the retaining bolt, subsequent to the installation of the automobile door lock and the insertion of the outer door handle, to bring the outer door handle into its operational position while taking along the outer actuation lever; to fix it in this position, and then to retighten the retaining bolt of the lock mechanism assembly.
The automobile door locks mentioned above, and the installation process outlined in the above description, absolutely require that the automobile door lock be first installed in the automobile door, and that only then the outer door handle is mounted. An installation process in reverse, which sometimes is desirable, is not realizable with this method. It, too, requires the presence of the outer door handle during the installation movement into the door panel to shift the outer actuating lever from its delivery position into its operational position.
Moreover, the necessity to have an abutment surface to move the outer actuating lever against the bias force of the bias spring makes the construction of the outer door handle with its hook-like section rather complicated. This means production costs for the outer door handle to increase.
In addition to the problems mentioned above, there is a considerable tolerance problem during the installation of the outer door handle. Very narrow tolerance ranges have to be adhered to, so as to obtain the necessary guidance effect, for accurately targeting the abutment surface.